Asleep at the Wheel still the kings of western swing

Asleep at the Wheel frontman Ray Benson belts out a song during a performance at the George Strait Music Festival in 1999.

Asleep at the Wheel frontman Ray Benson belts out a song during a performance at the George Strait Music Festival in 1999.

Photo: File Photo

Photo: File Photo

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Asleep at the Wheel frontman Ray Benson belts out a song during a performance at the George Strait Music Festival in 1999.

Asleep at the Wheel frontman Ray Benson belts out a song during a performance at the George Strait Music Festival in 1999.

Photo: File Photo

Asleep at the Wheel still the kings of western swing

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Forty years ago, Ray Benson and a group of other guys with a passion for roots music were struggling to come up with the right name for their band.

Benson thought of the Lower 40. "But that didn't work," he said.

The eureka moment came one morning when Lucky Oceans burst out of the outhouse near where they were living in Paw Paw, W.Va., shouting, "I have a great idea for the name — Asleep at the Wheel," Benson recalled.

"We thought it was hilarious. It just stuck," he said.

Asleep at the Wheel's influence runs wide and deep after four decades of carrying the torch for western swing, touching millions of fans and inspiring generations of artists while picking up accolades, including nine Grammys.

The venue is across the street from the now-gone Armadillo World Headquarters, where the band first played after moving to Austin in 1973 at the urging of Willie Nelson and the late Doug Sahm.

"Let me put it this way - it will be a full night," Benson said.

Nelson will close the show with a set re-creating the Willie and the Wheel CD and tour.

Opening will be a cavalcade of musicians - more than 25 of the 80-plus who have played in the band - including founding members front man/guitarist Benson, steel guitarist Oceans, drummer Leroy Preston, guitarist Chris O'Connell, bassist Gene Dobkin and piano player Floyd Domino.

"I don't think we'll ever be able to put something together like this again," Benson said.

While the band's longevity sparks numerous jokes, including faux products such as the Asleep at the Wheelchair, Benson remains serious about keeping the flame of western swing alive.

"Every night we have people come up and say something like they saw us in 1972 at the Long Branch. Others beg us to never stop playing this kind of music," he said. "It's very touching. We have been entrusted with the legacy of western swing - and that to me is a real honor."

Benson recalls numerous highlights:

• 1972, in the office of Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen in Oakland, Calif., when Van Morrison called and asked the Wheel to open for him. "Boom - we were mentioned in Rolling Stone. That's how we got our first record deal."

• 1973, while playing at a club in Garland. "Willie Nelson said he'd heard about this long-haired band playing Bob Wills music and came to see us."

• 1978, Gruene Hall, when George Strait opened for the Wheel. "A lot of bands treat opening acts terrible. We never did. Later, when we were opening stadium shows for him, I asked if we did. He said we were cool - we wouldn't be there if we hadn't been."

• 1988, in the green room of The Tonight Show. "Dolly Parton called and asked me to co-star and to write the music for a TV movie she was doing, Wild Texas Wind."

"It all comes from, hopefully, playing great music," Benson said, "and I've been blessed to have some of the greatest musicians in the world play in this band."

They include:

• Founding member Oceans, a DJ and artist playing with dozens of bands in Australia

"It's improvisational music. You sing a song, then all the players do solos, and they're improvised like in jazz, blues and rock ' n' roll. Every night you're challenged to play a solo, and it's never the same twice," he said. "I don't think I can remember what I do from night to night."

As for the longevity of the band - and western swing - the genre already was 30 years old when he started playing it.

"It couldn't go out of date. So we couldn't go out of style," Benson said.

"We started with something that had lasting value. And, it seems, every 10 years another generation discovers us."